You are at risk of being perceived as weak if you care about the people you work with. (It’s all about results, right?) Besides, who has time to concern themselves about the person next to them? And caring can make you vulnerable: Your teammate might not care about you back. You could be taken advantage of, made to look silly, because you’ve revealed you’re actually human.
The temptation is to follow along with the system of how everyone seems to do it. Don’t care. Don’t concern yourself with the pains and joys and lives of others. Just treat them as someone you have to tolerate to get that performance bonus.
That’s how caring gets a bad reputation. Because they don’t understand what you do, that when you care about others enough, you:
- tell the truth faster
- include others quicker
- hold people accountable to higher standards (because you care about them so much, you won’t tolerate failure)
- and enjoy life far more.
Ultimately, your team must answer this question: Do we care enough about our business imperative to care about each other? Only one answer improves your team’s chances of mobilizing hearts and minds forward—and making an epic impact.
When the system tempts you to think you can succeed without caring about others, defy the system: Care anyway.
